Container on rent

Shipping container rental price per month

Our survey of 20 October 2026 kept 3 listings that state a monthly rent and the period it covers. Lessors’ own websites, which the survey does not read, advertise other rents, some lower: on 22 October 2026, one of those that rank on Google listed 40 ft boxes, often high cube, from ₹9,500 a month. On the same day we read the rental categories of two online marketplaces again. One shows no price at all on its rental pages; the other shows prices without saying what period they pay for, a day, a month or the whole hire, so we leave them out. None of the listings in our survey quotes a rent per day: dry boxes are rented by the month, often with a minimum period, while some reefer lessors also quote by the day (reefer container on rent). Most lessors quote on request, from the size, the period and the place; the survey method explains what we keep.

A partner’s rent, below the lowest in our survey

A partner of Asia Containers told us on 22 October 2026 that it rents its containers 20% below the lowest monthly rents of our survey: ₹11,200 for a 20 ft box and ₹14,400 for a 40 ft one. It is one company’s offer, not a market price, and it does not move with our survey; lower 40 ft rents are advertised outside it, as said above. The partner confirms its offer, and whether it delivers to your PIN code, in its quote, which also settles the points listed under the table.

In the quote request, choose “Rent”, give the size and the PIN code of the site, and write in the message box the start date, the number of months and whether a truck with a crane can reach the spot.

Ask for container rental quotes →

Rent or buy a container?

At the lowest rent of our survey, 9 months of rent for a 20 ft box add up to the typical asking price of a used one, ₹1,20,000; at the partner’s rent, 11 months. A used 40 ft container is typically asked ₹1,80,000, which its rent reaches after 10 months, or 13 at the partner’s rent.

• Rent for a need with an end date shorter than that: a building site, a season’s stock, a move. The lessor brings the box, takes it back and keeps the problem of storing or selling it.
• Buy when the box will stay longer, or when you have a use for it afterwards. A bought box comes once; a rented one comes and goes, and both trips are paid. A used box can also be sold again at the end, which renting never gives back. The used 20 ft container page shows today’s asking prices.

Rent to own a container

Some lessors offer to sell you the box you rent. Before you sign, get in writing how much of each month’s rent counts towards the price, the purchase price and whether it is fixed on the first day, the state the box must be in when you buy it, and who issues the GST invoice for the sale. Then compare the total with renting for the same months, and with buying a used box outright.

Container rental cost besides the rent: trips, GST, deposit

• Delivery and pickup. Each trip needs a truck and a way to set the box down and lift it again: a crane, or a truck with its own crane or side-lifter. We found no published price for a local trip. As a yardstick for the crane, the Delhi schedule of rates 2023 of the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) prices a mobile crane with operator and fuel at ₹5,050 a day, before GST, the hirer’s margin and travel to the site. Ask for each trip as its own line, and whether the pickup price is fixed now or at the end of the hire. Site preparation and unloading shows the space the truck and the crane need.
• GST. Renting a container is taxed at the rate for selling one: 18% on the rent (GST on shipping containers). A trip billed by a goods transport agency carries 5% if the agency takes no input tax credit, or 18% if it has opted to; a registered business paying the freight may owe the 5% itself under reverse charge (GST on transport). If the lessor bills the trips with the rent, ask which rate it applies.
• Deposit. None of the rental pages we read gave an amount. Ask how much, when it comes back, and what can be deducted from it.
• Damage on return. The lessor compares the box with its state on delivery. Without a signed report and dated photos from the first day, any dent or hole can be charged to you.
• Goods inside. What you store is at your risk unless the agreement says otherwise. Ask whether a padlock comes with the box, and whether its doors have a lock box that shields the padlock from bolt cutters.

The first month, added up. At the lowest rent of our survey, a 20 ft box costs ₹16,520 a month with GST at 18%, and ₹49,560 if the lessor asks for three months at least. Delivery, pickup, any crane and the deposit come on top.

Container rental agreement: what to check before you sign

• The box itself. Its container number, size and state (one-trip, cargo-worthy, or wind and water tight only) written in the agreement and on the delivery note.
• The rent. The amount, the period it covers (a calendar month or 30 days), the due date, how a part month is counted, and GST shown separately with the lessor’s GSTIN.
• The period. The minimum, the notice needed to end the hire, and the rent if you return the box early.
• The trips. Delivery and pickup priced in writing, who arranges the crane, and what happens if the truck cannot reach the spot on the day.
• The condition report. Signed by both sides on delivery, with photos inside and out; the same at the end, and a line on what counts as normal wear.
• Moving it during the hire. Who pays if the box must be shifted on site, for example when work reaches the spot where it stands.
• Insurance. Who insures the box, and who insures what is inside.
• Rent to own. If the agreement offers it, the terms above in writing.
• Stamp duty. Who pays it on the written agreement; the amount depends on your state’s stamp law.

Asia Containers does not rent out containers. Partners who rent containers and cover your PIN code can reply to a quote request: check each quote against this list before you sign.

Ask for container rental quotes →

TDS on container rent

A business that rents a container may have to deduct tax at source (TDS) from the rent. Under the Income-tax Act 2025 as passed, in force since 1 April 2026, rent for the use of machinery, plant or equipment carries TDS at 2% once it passes ₹50,000 for a month or part of a month (section 393). The payers who deduct are companies, firms and any other payer that is not an individual or a Hindu undivided family (HUF), and an individual or HUF whose business turnover passed ₹1 crore, or whose professional receipts passed ₹50 lakh, in the previous year. A family renting a box for a move deducts nothing.

The Act does not name containers. If a box hired on its own counts as equipment, one 20 ft box at ₹14,000 a month stays under the threshold, and several boxes from the same lessor can pass it. Under the former Act, a tax tribunal applied the rule for contracts, not the rule for rent, where the contract was for a transport service rather than for the use of the goods. Ask your accountant which rule fits your agreement.

Which container to rent: storage box, office container or reefer

• For storage, a plain box: a 20 ft one holds 33.2 m³, a 40 ft one 67.7 m³. A 40 ft box gives twice the space of a 20 ft one for ₹18,000 a month against ₹14,000 in our survey; before you choose it, check that its trailer can reach your spot and turn back out. For a move, check the space first: a 20 ft box stands on 6,058 × 2,438 mm, and the truck needs room beside it.
• As an office, a box with a door, a window, insulation and power, rented for the length of the works: see office container on rent, which also covers where a temporary site office needs no permit.
• Refrigerated, a reefer rented for a season: see reefer containers on rent.

None of the listings in our survey gave a monthly rent for an office container with its period: office units are quoted on request, and each fitted item, from the window and the insulation to the wiring and an air conditioner, adds to the rent. Many “office containers” advertised for rent are prefab cabins, which this site does not price: container or porta cabin shows how to tell them apart, and container office what a converted box costs to buy. 10 ft and 40 ft high cube boxes are also rented; none of the listings in our survey gave their rent with its period.

Can I give my container on rent?

Yes. What it takes depends on who rents it.

• To local renters, for storage or a site office: builders, shops, families moving house. The plate of the International Convention for Safe Containers (CSC) is not needed for a box that stays on land: the Convention covers containers used in international transport.
• To a shipping line or a freight forwarder, to carry cargo abroad, the box needs a valid CSC safety approval plate and examinations on time: the first within five years of manufacture, then at least every 30 months, with the date of the next one marked on or next to the plate (large leasing fleets follow an approved continuous programme instead, marked “ACEP”). Ask the line or forwarder what else it requires.

A box taken out of service and no longer kept to the Convention must have its plate removed by its owner. Before buying a box to rent out to shipping lines, check that its plate is there and its examination date still valid: how to inspect a used container shows where to look.

Container rental business: what one box earns

An example, not a forecast. A used 20 ft box bought at its typical asking price, ₹1,20,000, and let at ₹14,000 a month, the lowest rent of our survey, brings in ₹84,000 in a year rented for six months, ₹1,26,000 rented for nine and ₹1,68,000 rented all year. From that come repairs and paint, insurance, a yard to keep the box between hires, a padlock, and the months it waits for a renter. Lessors usually bill both trips to the renter. Once your turnover requires GST registration, you add GST at 18% to the rent and pay it over. Rents advertised outside our survey go lower: price your box against what lessors near you ask.